Hunt for the Saiph (The Saiph Series Book 3)

by PP Corcoran

  The chirp of the communicator at his waist reached him through the drip, drip of the steadily increasing rain. Lifting it from his belt he pushed accept. It was his adjutant, Major Froli.

  “General! Kuna reports four warships have exited fold space. They are shaping an intercept course for him! Kuna’s sensors indicate the unknowns are in the heavy cruiser range and are powering up weapons. Kuna is preparing to engage!”

  Siloz stood stock-still in the rain as it ran in rivulets down his face. Kuna was one of the Empire’s first fold-capable frigates, it was simply visiting Balat as part of its shakedown cruise and the cruisers would have it massively outgunned. Siloz would not waste the crew’s lives in some futile gesture. “Order the Kuna to break orbit and return to Alona now! Appraise Fleet Headquarters of our situation and return with reinforcements. I’m on my way to Colony Control now and will be with you shortly.”

  Siloz cut the link and headed for the ground car, pausing he allowed his eyes to feast on the darkened landscape one last time, knowing in his heart he would never look upon the view again.

  #

  INS KUNA - ORBITING BALAT

  Captain Warat and the crew of the Kuna raced to prepare the frigate for departure. The trip to Balat had identified a slight variance in the primary fusion generator, prompting Warat to grant the Chief Engineer time to investigate the problem before continuing to Opero. Despite the fact that the yards in Alona could find and fix the issue in half the time his crew could, Warat decided the crew needed the experience. Now that four unknown warships were closing in, he regretted his decision.

  On the tactical display, Warat saw the fast-closing icons and realized the Kuna was out of time. Even if the chief got the reactor online right away, it wasn’t enough time to avoid entering the advancing warships’ firing range.

  “Communications! Get the drones away now!”

  The comms officer’s eyes met and briefly held her captain’s she understood the unsaid implications. She turned back to her board and set about downloading the destination coordinates into each of the drones’ computer brains.

  “Download complete, Captain!”

  Captain Warat stole a glance at the tactical display, his heart sank as he saw the wave of smaller icons separate from the larger masses representing the warships. Missiles were heading for his poor Kuna, he must tell those at home what was happening here.

  “Launch the drones! Tactical. Weapons free. Give them everything we’ve got!”

  Five communications drones burst from the belly of the Kuna. In their wake, the spread of anti-missile fire from the Kuna seemed pitiful in the face of the avalanche of missiles falling on her. Two drones succumbed to enemy energy fire but three made the transition to fold space. Two headed for Alona, the third did not.

  In her haste, the comms officer missed the fact that Drone 5 was still locked into the war game the Tactical Section had been playing before real life interrupted. The drone followed its pre-programmed instructions. It headed for Waypoint 4, the nearest Commonwealth base. The final navigation checkpoint before entering Alonan space which, after the breakdown in relations between the Empire and Commonwealth, became the home to a complete Commonwealth Battle Force and the base of its Empire surveillance operation.

  #

  WAYPOINT 4 - 5000 LIGHT YEARS FROM ALONA - INTERSTELLAR SPACE

  The Operations Center was a picture of quiet efficiency. Commander Talan, Duty Officer at Waypoint 4, sat relaxed in his chair on its raised dais. The Garundan flicked his eyes around the various workstations filling the small room. All seemed tranquil and sedate as the assorted watch officers tried to fight off the onset of boredom.

  The tactical plot remained virtually unchanged since the departure of BatFor 4.1 earlier in the morning. As tended to happen when you coordinated military units over such vast distances, the replacement BatFor, BatFor 2.3, encountered an unexpected delay in its departure from Janus. A delay of twenty-four to thirty-six hours and was late to relieve the Persai covering force of BatFor 4.1.

  The commanding officer of BatFor 4.1, Force Leader Palas, was well aware of the Combined Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) decision that BatFor 2.3 would be the last Commonwealth capital ship unit deployed to Waypoint 4. The colonization program was gaining momentum, as was the operation to secure the last of the Others’ bases. The waning plan of CJCS commenced with the re-prioritizing of the use of capital ship heavy units such as the BatFors.

  They planned for a future where the BatFors remained primarily in the home systems and the CJCS relied on smaller, more flexible destroyer and cruiser squadrons to police the colonies. The first of this new breed of destroyers was already at Waypoint 4. TDF Sorcerer, fresh from yard hands, was refurbished and upgraded with the latest offensive and defensive systems. Sorcerer was the lead ship of four in the new Destroyer Division 5.1.1.

  Force Leader Palas was happy with this plan, in fact so much so, he saw no measure of danger in folding for home as scheduled without waiting for the now-delayed relief force. After all, the only other ships he’d observed in the area in three months were cargo ships, hauling goods between the Empire and the Commonwealth. Palas was certain the new, secretly deployed Dupin surveillance platforms dotted around the Empire’s three colony -worlds should give Waypoint 4 adequate advance warning of any suspicious activity by the Alonans. The Dupin platforms were specifically designed to be as stealthy as possible, while remaining capable of keeping an eye on the Empire.

  Commonwealth and Alonan affairs had taken a nose-dive after the attack on Alona by the Others. Even though First Fleet responded to the Empire’s call for help, it was obvious the Empire blamed the Commonwealth for the attack in the first place. In the aftermath of the attack, the Empire placed even more stringent conditions of entry than before into what it saw as Alonan space. The regions around the three colony-worlds became a no-go area for Commonwealth shipping. Commonwealth ships were now only allowed as far as the outer marker of the Alonan system, where they transferred their cargoes to Alonan transports at the partially completed Emperor Yalo IV spaceport. The expanding Imperial Navy performed constant sweeps of the inner system for any intruders, so it was deemed too risky to place any Dupin platforms in the Alonan system itself, but by employing the stealth capabilities of a long-range Talos shuttle, the Commonwealth managed to place the Dupins in position around the colony systems.

  Talan’s lower jaw dropped slightly as he quietly chuckled. How the universe changes, one day they hail us as heroes for saving them from the Others, the next? We’re banned from their systems like lepers! He unintentionally snorted, a little too loudly, and surreptitiously looked around to see if any of the other staff had noticed. The beep from his terminal alerted ‘status change.’ Talan hauled himself upright and tapped a key to expand the message. The detection grid was picking up a small object that had just folded back into normal space.

  The seaman at the Tactical Station called out, “Commander! Computers are calling Bogey One an Alonan communications drone, it’s holding at 500,000 kilometers.”

  Talan scratched his lower jaw with one pointed claw, “Communications! Lock onto the Alonan drone and send an interrogation query. Let’s see what it’s doing here.”

  The Garundan petty officer operating the comms desk carried out his orders and the reply took just seconds to arrive. “Commander! I’m receiving a reply in plain language…Computers are translating now.”

  “Throw it across to my screen, PO.” Talan toggled his screen from tactical display to comms read-out. The translation of the Alonan message popped up. “Holy shit!” The profanity favored by one of his human navy instructors inadvertently escaped him. Talan read the message again. He flipped up the clear plastic cover over the large red button on his desk and without hesitation, he mashed his finger down on it.

  The battle station’s alarm whooped throughout Waypoint 4.

  #

  TDF SORCERER - 2000 KILOMETERS OFF WAYPOINT 4

  Sorcerer’s
corridors gleamed almost as brightly as the fresh commander’s leaf on Kenichi Sutou’s collar. He walked briskly through the Havoc class destroyer, heading for the bridge. Crewmembers dodged around him as they rushed for the battle stations the klaxon called them to.

  Kenichi’s pace slowed as he approached the bridge entrance, the armed marine on duty by the door keyed in the lock sequence and granted him entry.

  It was unusual for a ship of Sorcerer’s size to have her own marine complement on board, but her original task in the Sol system was to board and inspect merchantmen, and to do so they required a full platoon of marines. With her new policing role in Waypoint 4 space, the admiralty had deemed it prudent to keep them aboard.

  Kenichi marveled that the Sorcerer was still in commission at all. After the damage the destroyer had sustained as part of Admiral Chavez’s desperate defense of Earth, Kenichi fully expected to see his ship scrapped. The authorities, it transpired, had other plans for Kenichi and Sorcerer. Once emergency repairs were completed, the Sorcerer folded out to Janus. The colony’s undamaged shipyards repaired the damage to the little destroyer.

  Kenichi’s eyes were drawn to the seamless, gleaming roof of the bridge where the Others X-ray laser had once penetrated it. The single hit nearly destroyed Sorcerer. The bridge was opened to vacuum, the comms officer and three crewmembers were lost before they had the chance to seal their helmets, but that wasn’t the worst of it. The powerful laser carried on through the deck plates until it reached the forward missile hold. Only the quick thinking of a bosun’s mate prevented the Sorcerer from becoming nothing more than stellar dust as two of the multi-megaton missile warheads went critical. The bosun locked down the hold and activated the emergency decoupler. A large section of Sorcerer’s outer hull armor explosively detached to allow the entire forward missile hold to be ejected from the ship, accelerating clear on chemical rockets. Kenichi rolled the ship away deploying his still-intact side armor over the rapidly moving hold and only just in time. The missiles detonated at a distance of less than eighty kilometers, rocking the Sorcerer to her core. Bosun’s Mate Ashley Dison and two missile specialists were still in the hold when it detached. Their sacrifice saved the rest of the crew, a cold comfort to the bereaved families, but one Kenichi stressed in his letters to them.

  Kenichi took his seat. “Tactical. Report.”

  “Sir! Three minutes ago, sensors detected the arrival of an Alonan communications drone. Less than a minute later, Waypoint 4 went to battle stations. Our threat board is clear, but as per SOPs, Sorcerer has also gone to battle stations.” Kenichi’s brow furrowed as comms announced:

  “Incoming priority signal from Waypoint 4, sir! It’s Commodore Chand.”

  “Put it through.” Kenichi spun his chair ninety degrees and activated his small holo cube, it flickered briefly before the image cleared into the pointed features of the commanding officer of Waypoint 4.

  “Commander Sutou, I’ll get straight to the point. The Alonan communications drone carries a plain language message indicating Balat is under attack from four cruisers of unknown origin. The drone belongs to the Kuna.” Chand paused, then pursed her lips. “The drone confirms the Kuna was destroyed.”

  Kenichi recalled the specs for the Kuna class frigate. For a small ship, it could pack a heavy punch, but against four cruisers, it would only end in crushing defeat.

  “I’ve dispatched a drone to reach Force Leader Palas before he arrives at Pars, I’ve requested his immediate return. I’ve launched drones to BatFor 2.3 and Central Command, they carry details of my intentions.”

  Kenichi raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Your intentions, Commodore?”

  “Your orders are to take the Sorcerer to the Balat system. Rendezvous with our Dupin surveillance platform and download its take. If there are no further indications of hostiles in the system, you are to proceed into Balat close orbit and ascertain the condition of the colony.”

  Kenichi listened in disbelief. “Commodore. You must realize if the Kuna managed to get a drone away to Alona, then their own navy will respond in force. The Sorcerer emerging in the outer system to download Dupin data is excusable but if the Imperial Navy finds me sneaking around Balat then it’s conceivable they will mistake us for the destroyers of the Kuna.”

  In the holo cube, Chand’s cheeks flushed as she fixed Kenichi with a steely stare. ”Unless I am much mistaken, I am in command. These are my orders. You will carry them out expeditiously and to the letter or you will suffer the consequences, Commander!”

  Kenichi swallowed. “Aye-aye, Commodore.”

  Chand cut the link, leaving Kenichi staring into blank space trying to figure a way out of the danger Chand was directing the Sorcerer toward.

  #

  BALAT - SYSTEM 23890 - 22 LIGHT YEARS FROM ALONA

  The first phase of Sorcerer’s mission went off without a hitch. Emerging at the edge of the system, the Dupin platform was exactly where it was supposed to be. Minutes later, Sorcerer’s whisker laser lock was secured and the Dupin’s data was transferred into her memory banks.

  Kenichi waited with barely concealed impatience as the tactical section carried out an initial analysis of the surveillance platform’s data before finding what they were looking for. Kenichi and the entire bridge crew sat glued to their seats as the events of barely three hours ago replayed on the main bridge holo cube.

  The footage started peacefully, the Kuna in sedate orbit around Balat, high above the gathering storm clouds, which obscured the colony from visual sensors but not from the array of electromagnetic and thermal ones. Without warning, four ships appeared and shaped a course for the Kuna. In the display’s sidebar, Kenichi saw the energy readings from the Kuna rise sharply, but not as sharply as those of the four intruders. The missiles, too small to be seen by any human eye, were automatically highlighted in the holo cube as they left their parent ships.

  The Kuna returned fire, a paltry effort, as the first enemy missile struck the Kuna, the intruders pressed forward and soon energy armament flashed between the intruders and the minnow-sized target.

  Kenichi found himself willing the Kuna to break orbit and flee into fold space, but the brave little frigate held its ground as it faced the waves of missiles and whipping energy fire. The battle was concluded in minutes. The Kuna took hit after hit until finally she simply exploded in a ball of blinding light and expanding gases. Then the inevitable happened. The intruders, without pause, formed up directly over the colony. The holo cube displayed the missiles as icons flushing from tubes but this time targeting the planet’s surface. The storm clouds dissipated as the heat of thermonuclear explosions ripped through the atmosphere.

  Kenichi counted fifteen detonations starting at the heart of the colony and spreading out in an even circular pattern, destroying the colony with surgical precision.

  As the rain of missiles on the planet stopped, the Dupin’s sensors swept the area of the colony and the surrounding areas and caught the four intruders breaking orbit, powering away from the decimated colony before disappearing into fold space. Their mission apparently complete and peace seemingly returned. The clouds rolled in and re-covered the planet’s surface.

  Breaking the silence Kenichi, despite his dry throat, said, “Holo cube off. Tactical. Bomb Damage Assessment?”

  “BDA is 100 percent. In my estimation, the colony has been… totally destroyed.”

  ”And the ships’ weapons capabilities?”

  “Initial analysis shows the ships are the size of large cruisers, but their missile capability is comparable to a Bismarck class battleship. They appear to use lasing and grazing techniques similar to ours but the throughput is well above what we can achieve. I need more time to get a closer look. Honestly, sir I can’t give you the answers you want just now.”

  “Honesty appreciated, Lieutenant. Engineering, what do you have?” Kenichi asked, well aware of Kendricks’ second-to-none knowledge of engine design.

  “They’re definitely using Saiph g
ravity drives, sir, and from the power readings, they’re running at almost maximum efficiency. At least ten percent more so than our most modern ships.” Kendricks paused. “Even the Persai’s best is not this good. There’s no doubt, sir, these people have formidable engineering.”

  “So… these cruisers have more firepower than a Bismarck battleship and engines more efficient than any from the Commonwealth. Kendricks, have you seen anything like this before? Anything that might give us a clue as to who these people are?”

  “Sorry, sir, can’t say that I have.”

  A wave of unfamiliar indecision washed over Kenichi. Despite his feeling that taking the Sorcerer any closer to Balat would achieve little, Commodore Chand’s orders were explicit.

  “OK, people, let’s go take a closer look at Balat. Navigation, plot us a fold.” The screaming of the collision alarm drowned out his words.

  Young’s fingers flew across her board. “Sir. I have four… correction, six ships bearing down on us…It’s the Alonans, sir! Two cruisers and four destroyers. Weapons are powering up.” Her eyes were glued to her display. “Vampire! Vampire! Vampire! Missile separation. Impact in twenty seconds.”

  Kenichi spat his orders like machine-gun rounds. “Tactical! Weapons free on all defensive systems. Navigation! Cancel my last. Plot us a course home and fold when ready. Communications! Get the ready-drone downloaded and away.”

  “Ten seconds. Anti-missile missiles away. Laser Defense Clusters firing.”

  “Hold on, people, this is going to be rough!” Kenichi grabbed the chair restraints, knowing he couldn’t secure them in time.

  On Sorcerer’s outer hull the small high-intensity lasers that made up Sorcerer’s area denial weaponry fired from their pods positioned the length of the destroyer. A swathe of coherent light cut into the approaching missiles. High-speed anti-missile missiles joined the fray, destroying more of the incoming barrage. Inevitably, Sorcerer’s defenses were breached.

  The kiloton yield Alonan missile exploded a scant 200 meters from Sorcerer’s armored bow, ripping through the first layer of ablative armor like tissue paper. The second layer slowed the progress of the shock wave, but it still wrecked the forward sensors, Grazer One, and Number Two plasma turret. Sorcerer staggered under the impact but Commander Kendricks’ engines didn’t let them down as Sorcerer powered on through the expanding plasma cloud.